


Change of Plans

by FlyingPrimate



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Actually The War Is Over And They're Fighting TWSITD, Angst, Anxiety, Blood and Injury, Byleth Learns Emotions, F/F, Home Invasion, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, Occasional fluff, Post-Game(s), Post-Timeskip | War Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Romance, Violence, Wilderness Survival
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-21
Updated: 2020-05-24
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:13:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24248620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlyingPrimate/pseuds/FlyingPrimate
Summary: It had been a long-fought battle, but the Church of Seiros was no more. With their main goal accomplished the Black Eagle Strike Force and the Imperial army set their sights on battling Those who Slither in the Dark. Byleth was ready, she had strategized multitudes of different ways to infiltrate Shambala and battle the Agarthans.Byleth just hadn't expected the battle to come to Enbarr.Now forced out of Enbarr the Black Eagles try to come up with a way to reorganize and attack back but, Those who Slither have some foul ideas that they'd like to try.
Relationships: Edelgard von Hresvelg/My Unit | Byleth
Comments: 4
Kudos: 14





	1. Prologue - Escape From Enbarr

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to see TWSITD defeated in Crimson Flower like most people do, so I made my own fic! But them invading shambala had been done before, so I changed it up! Then the rest of the story brought itself out.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

It had been three months since Rhea and the Church of Seiros had fallen. 

It had also been three months since Byleth acquired a heartbeat and proposed to Edelgard. 

Now the Empire sets their sights on Shambala to rid fodlan of the last vermin that had remained too long. They conducted a final meeting going over their plan to invade the Agarthans. After the conference concluded, everyone went to rest for the march out of the capital that would happen the next day.

That night there would have to be a change of plans.

###############

The explosion was the first thing everyone heard. 

Byleth sat up straight in bed. Her Fiancée, Edelgard, got up a bit slower next to her. Their eyes were only able to meet for less than a second before there was a second explosion. They jumped out of bed and ran to put on armor and grab weapons. There had been something in Edelgard's eyes that Byleth wasn't used to. Fear maybe?

The third explosion shook the floor and shattered the window of their royal bedroom. It threw her off equilibrium and her foot missed the boot she was trying to put it in. The second try, she successfully got her boots on and ran to grab her weapons and supplies. She grabbed the Sword of the Creator, two other swords, and her satchel with a couple vulnerary. 

Her empress was already running out the bedroom door, hair in a hastily made ponytail. Byleth followed her out snatching the crown Edelgard didn't have time to put on just in case they couldn't come back for it easily. They were running down the stairs to the main hall when the fourth explosion hit. The vibrations from this one were considerably closer, it caused the entire stairwell to shake. The roof started collapsing on itself while the emperor and tactician went rolling down the stairs ungracefully landing at the bottom, but immediately getting up to dodge the stone and wood falling from the sky. 

They both managed to make it outside the castle, and it seemed her former students made it out too. Byleth wanted to turn around to see the state of the castle she had come from but unable to because of the swordsman clad in black that quickly pounced towards her, his blade thirsting for blood. She drew her silver sword, deflected the attack, and slashed him across the chest ending his life there. 

The immediate threat was gone and there seemed to be no others in sight. She chanced a look back at the castle to see it barely held together and on the brink of collapsing. Glimpsing around she saw the Black Eagle Strike Force looking at the castle with horrified awe in their face. Up in the sky a line of light fell from the sky and suspensefully landed in the open roof of the castle before the fifth explosion came. 

The loud BOOM rang in her ears as she watched the palace collapse in on itself. A thousand years of imperial heritage and legacy: gone in one night.

As structure fell to the ground a wave of wind, dust, and debris crashed through the streets. Everyone too close to the castle either ran or got crushed. Byleth scrambled to escape the stones falling behind her while dodging the fires that filled the streets, her ears ringing. Many rocks hit the back of her coat as she ran and one hit her head, but she had to ignore the pain and keep going.

Eventually the dust thinned out around her and she could see that she had ended up in the middle of the square by the fountain. She took a moment to recollect her thoughts. The pillar of light had confirmed that they were being attacked by Those who Slither in the Dark, but in their strategy meetings she had been told that they wouldn’t take the initiative. It seems like Hubert’s intel was wrong. She hadn't given a plan for this scenario and couldn't give orders to enough people. Hell, she couldn’t actually see any of the army fighting around her. 

What she could see was civilian homes being raided by cloaked people and any bystanders that made it outside were being slaughtered. There was a constant stream of screaming happening in every corner of the city.

Suddenly Byleth was hit by a fire spell sending her flying into the fountain, the back of her head hitting the column in the middle. This disoriented her but she was still able to dodge a second spell and send a bolganone to the mage in a mask. The mage was recovering and Byleth took the chance to run up and swing her sword at him, finishing him off. 

There was so much screaming happening around her and her head ached. She put her hand on the back of her head to hold the wound that was definitely there. She looked around for any familiar faces, hopefully Edelgard’s, and she saw most of them scattered around the square fighting enemies coming from all directions. She saw Edelgard in front of her, fighting more enemies. She couldn’t let her future wife do all the work. A thief leaped to get a hit on Edelgard from behind, but Byleth quickly blocked his incoming strike and began to fight the intruders

“I’m glad you’re alright,” Edelgard said out of breath. "Same." Was all Byleth replied.

The cries for help from residents were heard all around but she could do nothing when she when enemies had them surrounded. They had been fighting for a while but the number of foes never seemed to decrease, in fact it appeared to have doubled since she had started fighting. The two were quickly pushed back to the fountain and it seemed the other black eagles were approaching a similar situation.

They were all around the fountain and surrounded by Agarthans of all classes. Anytime Byleth slashed one down, it seemed like another immediately appeared to continue the combat. She knew that they couldn't keep this up; she was starting to get hurt. A warrior had just gotten a hit on her thigh with his axe and another shot a wind spell at her side cutting it open. Edelgard looked like she was struggling with wounds too. 

She heard many pained shouts from behind her signifying that everyone was taking damage. A large metal monster started to approach from behind the mob and Byleth knew they had to leave now or die. 

"Push through to the exit we need to leave!" She shouted above all the chaos. The team knew they were at their limit so they turned their attention to the enemies closest to the entrance gate.

Byleth ran through the fountain but stopped for a second when an unconscious Linhardt warped in front of her, splashing into the water. She picked him up and continued her trek through the fountain. With everyone's combined forces making a hole in the enemies was easy enough. The group ran through the enemies and just kept running. Looking down at Linhardt, he had a large slice across his chest and his legs were crushed to the point that she couldn't tell which bend was his knee.

They'd have to heal him when they got out of this mess. The group ran away from the horde and from the screams of the innocent. They followed Ferdinand who was leading the group on his horse he had somehow retrieved. 

The black eagle strike force crossed the gate and ran into the forest path, not looking back at the burning city or the mass chasing them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo! Thanks for reading! So that was the prologue to this story and it was more to tell what happened leading into the next chapter. Other chapters will have more emotions and thoughts, but this one was more for establishing the setting.
> 
> Hope you're having a good day and I hope that the back of Byleth's head is okay!


	2. The Path Ahead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Outside of Enbarr, the Black Eagles run away from Those who Slither

Unexpected things happened in life. Byleth had experienced some of these unexpected things: Being hired as a teacher, her father's death, falling in love. 

She supposed that technologically advanced beings chasing her out of her home was another one of the unexpected things.

This event just felt different. The crimson flames in the city that burnt houses to the ground. The men in black who killed anyone and everyone that moved. 

An arrow zoomed by her dragging her back to reality. They were all running for their lives. She was holding a heavily bleeding and unconscious Linhardt. Dorothea was riding with Ferdinand, likely because of her damaged legs with an arrow still in one of her calves. Petra was keeping up with the horse, Bernadetta trailing a bit behind her. Next to Byleth were the rest of the Black Eagles; Hubert, Caspar, and Edelgard.

She was thankful everyone in the strike force was here and accounted for. She didn't want to think about them leaving her.

They kept frantically running, none of them bothering looking back, not wanting to see the army black-clad men pursuing them. Her arms were growing tired which was expected when carrying a full-grown man; not to mention her arms had been hurt in the capital. She glanced at Caspar hoping he'd see her dilemma. He obviously wasn't looking at her and her silent cry for help went unnoticed. His face was etched with a worry that Byleth hadn't seen on him many times; everyone she could see more or less had some sort of frantic face on them, which was understandable. 

Byleth whispered out a quick, "Caspar!" His head shot over with sudden alarm in his eyes. After realizing the origin of the noise was his professor, he calmed down and took the unconscious body of his friend without losing a step.

The running continued for another 15 minutes before Bernadetta shouted, "I can't run anymore!" The archer's legs started slowing down. Byleth looked behind her and to her shock, saw that the number of enemies had drastically fallen to 4 assassins managing to follow their trail. 

Byleth took out her silver sword, stopped her movement, and used the momentum to shoot off the ground towards the assassins. They were visibly startled by her change in motion. The surprise allowed her to slit one of their throats, spraying blood into the air. A second enemy ran towards her sending two strikes her way. She parried them both before slashing his face. The man held his wound screaming as Byleth sent a second slash to his stomach causing him to fall to the ground clutching both his face and his abdomen.

The third one waited for her to approach. She did as he wanted and ran towards him with a powerful swing that started behind her head and was sent down to meet the assassins' sword. Her swing was so forceful it caused his knees to bend but this one wasn't going to be done in so easily. They clashed swords for a few seconds before Byleth found an opening and jabbed her sword through his head. He dropped his sword and his body went limp. After removing her sword from his skull, his body crumpled to the ground.

She turned to the group just in time to see Edelgard use Amyr to smash the final assassin into a disfigured corpse.

Byleth walked back to the group, it was dead quiet except for the leaves rustling and Dorothea trying but failing to keep her sobs in. Actually, there was another noise, it sounded like a spoon clinking against a glass except the noise didn’t fade after a second but continued at a constant volume. The back of her head felt numb; she touched the desensitized spot and her hand came back covered in blood. Huh.

Everyone seemed to be waiting for another to talk as they shot unsteady glances at each other. She had somehow ignored the tension that had been building up around them but now she was starting to feel it. The pressure kept building and it was getting exceedingly uncomfortable. They stood for minutes waiting for anybody to make a peep. Dorothea was still crying and the high-pitched drone in her head was growing.

She wasn’t going to be the one to talk; she had no idea what to say. What could one say to their friends after watching their home get demolished and people killed? 

She didn’t know how long she could stand here. At this point if someone didn’t say something, she was going to scream or run. She hadn’t ever felt this type of distress before, what the hell was happening to her. The damn ring was so deafening it was starting to crack her head open. Please just someone, ANYONE, say something, please. 

“So w-what now?” 

Thank the Goddess! Byleth hadn’t expected the purple-haired girl to be the one to talk but she welcomed it all the same. Wait what was that girl’s name? The tension started melting away and she started to wonder how she had gotten so worked up in the first place. She’d never felt like that before; maybe it was her new-found heartbeat that had been causing unplanned feelings. 

Or maybe it was this cursed noise inside her head preventing her from hearing Edelgard who was now speaking to the group.

Byleth really just wanted to feel the comfort of a warm hand in hers after the probably horrible thing that had happened, but all she could feel was the growing pain spreading through the back of her head like someone had smacked it with a hammer. She stumbled towards the white-haired woman, who was definitely the cutest there and reached out to grab her hand. 

She missed and fell to the ground unconscious at the Emperor's feet.

###############

She woke up to see Ferdinand staring down at her. "Ah perfect, you're awake! You gave us quite a scare professor!" He said a tone fit for a noble. Byleth replied with a grunt and felt the back of her head which produced no blood. She sat up with a bit of ache in her bones. "How long was I out?" 

"Only a few minutes. We have given you a vulnerary and your head injury has decreased. As of now we've set up camp in the forest because it is evident that we are in need of rest."

Byleth looked around and that everyone was sitting in somewhat of a circle. Petra and Dorothea were on the other side of the circle, with the latter healing Linhardt. Ferdinand was on her left while Edelgard and Hubert were on her right. Caspar was in the center trying to start a fire. No matter their position in the ring, they all stayed quiet.

Even after falling unconscious and waking up: the silence continued.

They must've discussed something while she was asleep so Byleth asked, "Did the strike force discuss anything while I was asleep?" 

"Yes" Came Hubert. "We are going to be heading to Derdriu where we can gather resources to wage war on Those who Slither in the dark." 

With Byleth's question answered, the silence perpetrated once more.

The group sat still as they watched Caspar struggle with the sticks and leaves that he clumsily rubbed together. He obviously had no idea what he was doing. Petra leaned forward wanting to help but she glanced around at the crowd and stayed in her position not wanting to disturb the false peace set up around them.

Why is Caspar of all people trying to make a fire? He must've volunteered rather than been assigned to the fire.

...

Byleth was fine with the silence, if they talked less they were less likely to be found. Though others seemed to be unnerved by the stillness. She supposed morale might be boosted if they talked but on the flip side it could make everyone feel worse. It was safer just to stay quiet.

…

Dorothea didn't seem to care about safety when she suddenly snapped.

"What is wrong with all of you?! A literal genocide has occurred and no one here seems to give a damn!"

Hubert immediately rebuked, "It is obvious such tragedy has occurred and we are all aware of it, there is no need for discussion."

"But we can't sit here with thousands of lives lost and act as if nothing happened! It's absurd!"

Ferdinand piped in, "I must agree with Dorothea, there must be some discussion about our enemies and the horrible actions they have taken. I did not talk earlier because I assumed there was a silent agreement that we would not speak." 

"I never agreed to that," Caspar mumbled, still fruitlessly rubbing sticks together. 

Edelgard spoke, "Well since we're talking now, what exactly are we discussing?"

"Having a talk about the enemy would be a good place to be starting," Petra stated.

Hubert agreed and started going over the enemies. The weapons that they used, the size of their army, and how the empire hadn't even thought invasion from the Agarthans was possible. Hubert concluded his report, and they discussed the enemies a bit more then went over some tactics that could've properly defended Enbarr from an attack.

After the team finished talking about Those who Slither, they talked about the lives lost. It was a solemn conversation.

Byleth hadn't spoken the entire conversation, preferring to keep to herself. Another person who didn't really talk much noticed her quietness.

"What do you think about all this professor?" Bernadetta asked.

Hm. What did she think? What happened was obviously horrible. The lives of so many were thrown away so quickly. There was the fisherman that Byleth saw often and the baker that she often grabbed pastries from. They had almost certainly perished. 

Byleth hadn't actually thought about it but so many people she had come to enjoy in her life were just gone. Her heart sunk at the thought. This was a new feeling that she hadn't felt before. Remorse?

Maybe they shouldn't have run away so quickly like that. Maybe if they had stayed some of the fallen would be alive. Logic pushed away those emotions. If they had stayed they'd just be dead too; it's better that they left, so that someone could get retribution for the dead.

"The events that occurred are horrendous and we must get revenge, but I'm grateful all of you made it." She finally answered.

And she was extremely grateful and lucky that all those she deeply cared about had made it. It made her overjoyed that none of them had fallen.

Her answer had ended the conversation, but everyone seemed happier with the heavy atmosphere gone. Petra got up to teach Caspar how to make a fire.

It wasn't until they had a tiny wisp of smoke that Hubert suggested that a fire may not be the best idea when they were trying to hide. Everyone was exhausted so they agreed sleeping would be a wise choice of action. 

"I'll keep guard!" Bernadetta decided to assert as she stood up. "I'm not tired. Also since we don't have a fire we can't cook food. But, I know some edible plants, so while you guys sleep I can scavenge the nearby trees to-"

Bernadetta's voice cut off as a noise sounding like a stick being swung through the air was heard for a brief moment. 

That's when Bernadetta collapsed face-first into the ground, an arrow in her back.

They had been found.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo thanks for reading! Hope you've enjoyed, I'm having fun writing this and I've got some things planned heehee.
> 
> Bernie's down and they've been found!


	3. Through the Forest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Black Eagles have to find somewhere else to rest.

It was times like this that she still had the power of Sothis with her. Without the power to turn back the hands of time she was stuck with whatever reality threw at her.

She stared at Bernadetta who was on the ground with an arrow in her back. The arrow must've had some sort of poison on it; Bernie wouldn't have been taken down by a single arrow so quickly. Byleth had to hope that it was a non-lethal poison.

After she was done contemplating the arrow she looked up at the person who had shot it. He stared back and behind him about a dozen people in black prepared to fight.

Beside her, her friends also prepared for combat. Dorothea dragged Bernadetta's body back from the action to keep her safe from further harm. Ferdinand ran off in another direction while Hubert maintained his current position with a spell prepared. Petra assumed a bent stance looking ready to pounce.

Caspar and Edelgard must've figured something was wrong with the arrows because instead of attacking, they moved up with their axes and hid behind the trees. Byleth would've done the same but the archer hadn't notched in another arrow yet, so she took the advantage and sprinted over to him to quickly take him out with her iron sword.

Byleth backed away from the rest of the small army and went to a nearby tree; One brave soldier followed her. He took a large swing at her with his sword which she easily dodged. She followed up his attack with two quick swings to his torso.

Petra came running towards Byleth and blocked an attack from a warrior who had been about to ambush her rear. She thanked Petra and continued battling the person who'd challenged her.

The rest of the foes started rushing towards her; there was no way she could handle that many. Thankfully Ferdinand came galloping on his horse to impale some enemies and Edelgard and Caspar followed closely behind. Hubert, from a distance back, shot a few spells.

The fight didn't last long due to the enemy's low numbers. After Edelgard took out the last one she turned away from the defeated troops and picked up Bernadetta, "We need to leave and hope they haven't alerted anyone else about our location."

They agreed and began to tread through the forest. Linhardt rode with Ferdinand on his horse while Edelgard held Bernadetta. Dorothea had already taken the arrow out of the girl and given her a vulnerary but she was still unconscious.

The already exhausted crew continued to trudge as far as they could, they needed to keep going until they couldn't anymore.

They were about an hour in and everyone seemed to be doing alright. Dorothea, Petra, and Ferdinand were discussing something about swords in the front while Hubert watched a little bit behind them. That left Byleth and Edelgard (and the still unconscious Bernadetta) at the back of the pack.

Both Byleth and Edelgard gave each other a quick glance before looking the other direction. Neither of them were much for talking but with the wind rustling the trees and the peaceful atmosphere of the forest, it almost felt wrong not to have a conversation.

Edelgard decided to break the ice, "I'm really happy you made it out with us, I don't know what I would've done if you weren't here."

Byleth looked over at her and answered bluntly, "You'd probably be right here on your way to Derdriu."

"But I'd feel a lot worse than I do now."

"You feel bad right now?"

"Of course I do!" Edelgard rebuked. "How could anyone not feel bad after losing their home and people to murders. They will pay for all they've done here and in the past."

She calmed down and her tone softened, "Regardless your presence motivates me. It's because of you that I've gotten so far on this path. Of course I feel ashamed of the loss at the capital but with you here it's not as bad."

Edelgard was looking at her future wife with a slight smile and blush on her face. She was cute, but Byleth knew if she said that aloud she'd be chastised.

She felt that tug in her heart that hadn't shown itself prior to three months ago. Since gaining a heartbeat, Byleth had begun to develop emotions that she had never realized were missing. She still hadn't gotten the hang of it, but Edelgard had been the biggest contributor to helping her learn.

"I admit I'm also extremely glad you're here, you make me feel things I don't feel towards other people and it makes me really happy," Byleth gushed as she felt her heartbeat run a bit faster and pull a little harder.

"This may seem out of the blue but I don't know if I'll have the chance to mention this once we're busy in Derdriu. I love you. You are the most important person in my life, so don't leave."

Byleth's heart was ramming against her chest now like it always did when they delved into the topic of love; It was painful but it felt nice. She wanted to ask her lover why she thought she'd leave but…

"Can I kiss you?"

Edelgard's face fully flushed and she wore a frantic face. She sputtered for a moment at a loss for words. 

"I-If you would like to."

"Would you like me to?"

"...Yes."

The two stopped walking and stepped closer to each other. They stood there staring at each other. Byleth looked at Edelgard's lips, a little chapped from the heat of the fires but still sweet looking. Despite being engaged for three months the two hadn't actually done anything past hugging and snuggling. Neither were outwardly romantic.

As Byleth leaned in closer she realized there was a problem.

Bernadetta was still in Edelgard's arms.

And even worse Bernadetta's eyes were clenched closed and a heavy blush covered her cheeks.

"Bernadetta?" Byleth called out to the no longer unconscious girl.

She rolled out of Edelgard's arms and fell onto the floor. "Aaaaaaaaah! I'm so sorry I didn't want to ruin your moment so I pretended I wasn't there but then you guys wanted to kiss and I couldn't just be in between you but if I got up it would ruin the moment so I didn't know what to do!"

"Bernadetta it's fine. I'm glad you're okay," Edelgard reassured though with a disappointed tone. How had she not realized that she had been carrying the girl throughout their entire talk. 

Hubert paced towards the stationary trio, "Bernadetta I'm relieved to see you're awake, but you three are falling behind the rest of the group. Please do keep up." He turned back around and walked back to the others.

They started walking back; Byleth and Edelgard were mildly annoyed, Bernadetta held her head in her hands muttering something under her breath. Byleth wasn't mad at Bernadetta, but she was upset that she wasn't able to follow through with the kiss. Her heart was still audibly thumping albeit at a slower pace. She had to try again sometime; hopefully successfully.

The two groups reunited and the couple received their expected teasing from Dorothea. The black eagles soon decided that they were too tired to continue, so they set up camp.

The party sat down to rest; most leaned back against a tree but Byleth decided to lay on Edelgard's lap. She didn't protest so she assumed it was okay. Ferdinand agreed to guard first.

The sun was starting to rise which meant that they'd be easier to spot. They were at least going to try to rest for as long as they could before getting spotted. 

Byleth fell into a blissful sleep on Edelgard's lap.

###############

"Professor… wake up…" A feminine voice whispered.

"Hm…?" Byleth slowly opened her eyes to see Petra's face hovering directly above her own. "Is it my turn to guard?" She asked groggily.

"No, there are enemies in the vicinity and we must be moving." Petra spaced herself from Byleth's face and went to wake up the next person.

Byleth supposed this was a better awakening than being stabbed by an Agarthan. She looked around to see Edelgard and Hubert up as well. The sun was a bit higher in the sky so she estimated that they'd gotten more than a couple hours of sleep.

"Since you're awake, if you would allow me to get up that would be appreciated," Edelgard said from above her. 

Byleth remembered where she was laying and sat up so Edelgard could stand. She rose to her feet as well and collected the supplies she had put to the side before sleeping.

"AH! Petra what are you doing?! The cry came from Dorothea who was the last person Petra went to wake up.

"Dorothea, you must be keeping quiet, the enemy is nearby" 

"Yeah ok, but do you have to be right in my face? A girl could easily get the wrong impression you know."

"I do not know. What impression would that be? Petra backed away and stood up.

"You know what, that doesn't matter right now. We need to go." Dorothea pouted with a small blush present on her face.

They all agreed and began their walk. 

A couple of minutes in they spotted a lone archer in black who was spacing out facing the opposite direction. Petra signaled to the group that she had it covered. It was well known that she was the stealthiest; there were no objections.

Petra crept over to him, a dagger in hand. She lurked a few feet behind her target and bent her knees as she prepared her assault. 

She pounced! She was on his back in a split second. He fell forward with a yelp that died out as her knife slit his throat leaving him a dead blood-gurgling mess. His body fell with Petra's weight still on it, blood started pooling around his neck. She got up and turned to the team. The deed was done.

None of them even flinched at the gruesome scene. Everyone here had long been used to the bloodshed. The war hadn't been pretty.

This dead archer owned some of the poisonous arrows which were recognizable by their dark purple tip; he had about thirty. Hubert pointed out that the stun it provided could prove useful. Instead of giving all the arrows to their archer, they each took two and then gave the rest to Bernadetta.

They resumed their trek but began to hear growls coming from their stomachs. Bernadetta grabbed a couple of edible plants as they walked along and they munched on them but the growling didn't stop.

"Man, I'd kill for some meat right about now," Caspar whined.

Hubert scoffed and gave him a side glance, "The only way to get meat is to kill."

"That's a great idea! Let's just go find something and cook it!"

Ferdinand objected, "A fire would draw too much attention not to mention I haven't seen any animals during our journey."

That was true, there hadn't been any animals around which was strange for how long they had been out in the forest. 

"I think it would be a good idea to find somewhere we can stock up on supplies," Edelgard recommends. "Since we're in Varley territory, we can visit the manor to-."

"No!"

Bernadetta stopped in her tracks, "There's NO way I'm going back there!" 

This was an understandable reaction. Byleth and Bernadetta had talked about her relationship with her father. Count Varley was not a good person or father. Byleth wanted nothing to do with him but given the situation, it was necessary.

"We must get supplies if we are going to be able to make it to Derdriu. We could also give Linhardt proper treatment among other things." Ferdinand interjected.

"Well how about we go to Bergliez? That's close by right? Then we wouldn't have to see my father!"

Everyone including Bernadetta knew that the Bergliez territory was further away and Varley manor couldn't be more than a few minutes away. It was more reasonable to stay on the path to waste as little time as possible.

Dorothea had an idea, "You know Bern I bet we could just stay in the town outside of the manor, we'd still get supplies and we wouldn't have to see your bum of a father!"

"Really?!" Bernadetta's eyes looked as though they were sparkling. "Edelgard can we?!"

"We don't have any gold so we'd have to ask for donations. I don't like the idea of feeding off of commoners of Adrestia who already have so little, but if it makes you feel better… I suppose?"

Bernadetta's hope wore off after that statement, "When you put it like that it sounds awful… but we can pay them back double after we visit Derdriu, right?"

"We can, but the manor is also likely to have easier access to the supplies we need. Not to mention your father would probably be very willing to accommodate us than random people trying to make a living." Edelgard knew Bernadetta was desperate not to see her father but it was the obvious answer.

Caspar piped in a bit too, "Ya know, you can always think of it as stealing stuff from your dad. I bet that'd help a little."

"You know what? You guys are right. He's our best source of supplies and I think it's about time I faced him! He doesn't control me anymore!" Bernadetta puffed her chest and put her hands on her hips in an attempt at a confident look.

"That's the spirit Bern!" Dorothea encouraged. "Just remember we're here with you and you're a different person than you were five years ago. You've fought in a war and he hasn't! Show him!"

"YEAH!!" Caspar joined in, liking the morale boost that was happening.

Byleth felt a sense of joy seeing everyone so carefree. She knew that with the road they were on, it was bound to change. Nevertheless she enjoyed this moment.

The Black Eagle Strike Force marched over to the Town of Varley with their spirits and hunger high.

Meanwhile; many yards behind them, dozens of black figures lurked in the shadows waiting for the cue to attack.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo! Thanks for reading!
> 
> Lol I'm focusing on Bernie a bit here but I swear this is still an Edeleth fic. There's nothing like messing around with Count Varley right?


End file.
